Pololu 3pi Robot - Manual (Page 8)

You might find the following materials useful in creating an environment for your robot to explore:
• Several large sheets of white posterboard (available at crafts or office supply stores) or dry-erase whiteboard
stock (commonly available at home/construction supply stores).
• Light-colored masking tape for joining multiple sheets together.
• 3/4" black electrical tape to create lines for your robot to follow.
4.b. Powering Up Your 3pi
The first step in using your new 3pi robot is to insert four AAA
batteries into the battery holders. To do this you will need to remove
the LCD. Pay attention to the LCD’s orientation as you will want to
plug it back in this way when you are done. With the LCD removed
your 3pi should look like the picture to the right.
Once the batteries are in place, you should return the LCD to its
position over the rear battery holder. Make sure each male LCD
header pin goes into a corresponding female socket.
Next, push the power button (located on the left side of the rear
battery pack) to turn on your 3pi. You should see the two blue power
LEDs on the underside of the 3pi light, and the 3pi should begin
running its preloaded demo program. You can simply push the
power button again to turn the 3pi off, and you can push the reset
button (located just below the power button) to reset the program
the robot is running.
4.c. Using the Preloaded Demo Program
Your 3pi comes preloaded with a program that demonstrates most of its features and allows you to test that it is
working correctly. When you first turn on your 3pi, you will hear a beep and see the words “Pololu 3pi Robot”, then
“Demo Program” appear, indicating that you are running the demo program. If you hear a beep but do not see any
text on the LCD, you may need to adjust the contrast potentiometer on the underside of the board. When the program
has started successfully, press the B button to proceed to the main menu. Press C or A to scroll forward or backward
through the menu, and press B to make a selection or to exit one of the demos. There are seven demos accessible from
the menu:
1. Battery: This demo displays the battery voltage in millivolts, which should be above 5000 (5.0 Volts) for a
fully-charged set of batteries. Removing the jumper marked ADC6 will separate the battery voltage measurement
circuit from the analog input, causing the number displayed to drop to some low value.
2. LEDs: Blinks the red and green user LEDs on the underside of the board. If you have soldered in the optional
user LEDs, they will also blink.
3. Trimpot: Displays the position of the user trimmer potentiometer, which is located on the underside of the
board, as a number between 0 and 1023. While displaying the value, this demo also blinks the LEDs and plays a
note whose frequency is a function of the current reading. It is easiest to turn the trimpot using a 2mm flat-head
screwdriver.
4. Sensors: Show the current readings of the IR sensors using a bar graph. Bigger bars mean lower reflectance.
Placing a reflective object such as your finger under one of the sensors will cause the corresponding reading to
drop visibly on the graph. This demo also displays “C” to indicate that button C has an effect—press C and the
IR emitters will be turned off. In indoor lighting conditions away from bright incandescent or halogen lights,
Pololu 3pi Robot User's Guide © 2001–2014 Pololu Corporation
4. Getting Started with Your 3pi Robot Page 8 of 63